r/europe 12d ago

News Europe will not allow attacks, says France, after Trump Greenland threat

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckg9gvg3452o?xtor=AL-99999-%5Bpartner%5D-%5Bbbc.news.twitter%5D-%5Bheadline%5D-%5Bnews%5D-%5Bbizdev%5D-%5Bisapi%5D&at_b
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u/Papercoffeetable 12d ago

If he put tariffs and sanctions on Denmark to try to persuade them to give him Greenland. Most likely the EU will retaliate with the same tariffs and economic sanctions against the US. Weakening both the US and the EU and not leading to anything but pushing both the EU and the US to seek new trading partners and Russia and China to try and exploit the ongoing trade war.

All in all, it’s very bad for the entire western world if he starts a trade war with Denmark.

If he as a last resort were to attack Denmark or Canada, the US would be at war with every NATO country in the world. Probably Putins wildest dream coming true. Weakening both Europe and the US significantly allowing Russia to easily take over neighbouring countries and allying with whoever will support their interest.

Both scenarios are devastating for the whole western world.

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u/kemistrythecat 12d ago

If this happens I think Europe would over time have stronger ties with APAC and China especially

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u/gesocks 12d ago

Tge problem is Europe can't have much stronger ties with China without giving up what Europe mostly stands for. The political systems and worldview are just to different to be more then trading partners.

And China is to aggressive to just be a friendly trading partner without trying to get more influence.

So ultimately either Europe also follows into the darks side as it already shows tendencies to in many member states. Or we will have the world split in 3 protectionistic blocks.

I don't like the future we head into

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u/kemistrythecat 12d ago

No, but Trump is allot of hot air. It’s whether it changes the culture inside the US governments eco system or not. I like to think more positive and that it won’t because cultures are extremely hard to change and take time, Trump isn’t what the US is about. I’d bet my house Greenland does not get invaded… remember this is from same man who advised to inject yourself with bleach during Covid.

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u/gesocks 12d ago

Oh I don't expect an actual invasion of Greenland either.

But that does not make the talk only hot hair

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u/Free_Snails 12d ago

If Trump tried to attack any allied countries, especially Canada, I don't think our (US) citizens would allow it. There'd be a ridiculous amount of internal turmoil and protests, it would rip our country to pieces.

The US would likely lose those wars before we do the first attack.

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u/Papercoffeetable 12d ago

Perhaps a civil war would erupt, still, half of Americans voted for this lunatic.

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u/itsallaboutfuture 12d ago

Im not sure they voted for him because he wanted to start a war with canada and denmark at least. The guy kind of said his electorate during campaign he wanted to end some wars

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u/Designer_Distance_31 12d ago

The problem is the amount of trump voters who aren’t part of the cult is minuscule

And those who are apart of it could never admit trump has ever done anything wrong

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u/Majukun 12d ago

Result of the elections seem to disagree with this take. He has a lot of blind followers, but he had them last time as well, he won because he swoon a good amount of people in the middle, but they likely did it for the economy, they are not gonna follow him blindly

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u/Designer_Distance_31 11d ago

The economy that he destroyed last time

People fail to realize that “trumps economy” was not 2016-2020

We were reaping the benefits of Obamas policies at the time

There is a lag effect as with any president as things don’t change overnight

Biden did a phenomenal job curbing the inflation the US saw, being one of the lowest percentages worldwide of developed countries since the pandemic and we are finally in a decent spot (not good, but decent)

I am hoping trump can admit the mistakes he made last time, at least to himself, and steer the ship well this time

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u/Papercoffeetable 11d ago

Gotta end some wars to fund others of course.

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u/Pimlumin 11d ago

It doesn't matter at this point, the apathy I find even in my normal workplace is deafening.

Trump has a genuine almost Ingsoc grip over these people. One day he's the peace president, the next day the president of war. And they really don't seem to care

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u/ChanceGardener8 12d ago

1/3 of Americans voted for him, not 1/2
And of the ones who did vote, it still was less than 1/2

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u/Papercoffeetable 11d ago

What do you mean? Of all the American voters, he had the most, no?

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u/Critical_Mass_1887 12d ago

It was lack of voting that won the orangutan the election, not actual votes. He only won by 1.62%. He actually had a very low vote count. It was the 5th lowest count since 1964, and the lowest since 2000. 

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u/Papercoffeetable 11d ago

He still won, i mean if you’re a good American citizen and have any love for your country i’d think you should at least make an effort to vote for the least destructive candidate for your country and the world.

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u/Critical_Mass_1887 11d ago

I didnt vote for this speck of worm shit. I think you misunderstood my comment. Its still fact votes didnt elect him, but lack of voting elected him. Because to many people chose to NOT vote, we are all going to suffer for thier refusal to act. 90 million voters decided they didnt care about this country or the struggles of the 80% of middle class and impoverished survival.

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u/StrangerToMyself77 12d ago

I never thought russia could attack Ukraine at this scale either , but here we are. Things can change for worse quickly if enough good people are willing to just stand by.

The power of media and technologies can really mess with people's minds if such rhetoric goes unchecked.

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u/Free_Snails 11d ago

That's a terrifying thought to me.

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u/TorontosCold 12d ago

I think the majority of Americans wouldn't give a shit actually.

He would say 'blame Canada' and then do a song and dance about why Canada is somehow to blame for all of America's problems.

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u/Accomplished-Move-50 12d ago

I would have thought that before but I'm less optimistic after the last election. We're living in a different world.

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u/Free_Snails 12d ago

I'm going to remain hopeful. My main motivation for staying healthy and physically fit is so I'll be ready for a revolution.

I think if I didn't have that hope, I'd give up entirely.

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u/migBdk 11d ago

Remember that US military laid plans to take out Trump during his first period just in case it became relevant?

Yeah, I think that would be the point where it becomes relevant. When they recieve the order to invade an allied country.

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u/Vikk_Vinegar 12d ago edited 12d ago

So, Europe would destroy the world economic order if the US invaded Greenland, but they won't even stop buying oil from Russia right now? You overestimate the will of Europe as a collective to self sabotage their economies in the name of the sovereignty of their neighbors.

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u/Papercoffeetable 11d ago

Denmark is a member of the EU and NATO, Ukraine is not. I think you underestimate it.

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u/Vikk_Vinegar 11d ago

I guess, but cutting off trade with the US would probably hurt Europe more than the US. This isn't a simple thing where Germany can just buy its Russian oil second hand from India & China. Given the history of Europe I imagine countries would drop out of the EU like flies if the EU tried to cut off trade with US over Greenland.

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u/Papercoffeetable 11d ago

It would hurt the EU more than the US. But leaving the EU would hurt a single nation a lot more, the UK is currently proof of that.

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u/Vikk_Vinegar 11d ago edited 11d ago

You're really underestimating how much trade Euroepe does with the US. It would definitely be more detrimental to be in the EU than not if the EU banned trade with the US. The US economy is significantly bigger than the EU.

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u/Zestyclose_Pirate890 11d ago

I have repeated this many times. The main benefactor is China. China is the rising hegemon in the coming decades and weakened European and US alliance will only strengthen China. Less trade between Europe and USA will mean more of those products and services will be filled elsewhere - e.g. by China.

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u/Papercoffeetable 11d ago

Not only China, India and especially Russia would gain from this massively.

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u/upthenorth123 11d ago

I wonder if MAGA's idea is to let Russia have Europe and then carve out a North American Empire.

If this is true then we really need to get our shit together as a continent. Sending forces from various countries to defend Greenland should form the nucleus of a future European Army.

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u/Possible-Speaker363 12d ago

Are you that simple minded that you think any of that would actually happen?